Posts tagged declining enrollment
LAUSD deadline looms to make painful cuts after county says board actions ‘erode confidence’
July 20, 2026 // The county rejected the plan, saying it lacked specificity and necessitates “an elevated level of fiscal oversight.” Among a list of eight acute budget issues, the July 2 letter faulted the L.A. Unified Board of Education for: Approving costly labor contracts exemplifying “mismanagement of the collective bargaining process.” A failure to carry out earlier approved budget cuts that “erodes confidence.” Raiding funds from a health benefits trust against “its own staff’s fiscal advice.” As a result of these and other district actions, Duardo said, L.A. Unified faces a cash shortfall of $231 million by November 2027, increasing to a $3.5-billion deficit by June 30, 2029.
Special Feature: How Public Employee Unions Built California’s Most Powerful Political Machine
July 13, 2026 // In California, public employee unions are often among the most influential organizations helping determine who becomes governor, mayor, county supervisor or school board trustee. They endorse candidates. They contribute millions of dollars to campaigns and independent expenditures. They provide campaign volunteers, voter outreach, mail programs, and political infrastructure that many candidates could not easily replace. By the time contract negotiations begin, the relationship between labor and management has often existed for months or years. That does not mean elected officials simply surrender to union demands. Many negotiate in good faith and work hard to protect taxpayers while fairly compensating public employees. But in government, the officials responsible for approving compensation packages are frequently supported by the same organizations representing the employees who will benefit from those agreements.
Fearing instability at Boston-area school, faculty ask for job protections if the school closes
May 1, 2026 // She and other faculty in low-enrollment programs are being asked to teach outside their fields because enrollment is too low to sustain courses within their areas of expertise. While education programs are facing declines at many universities, she attributes the downfall to administrative issues. She said shared governance and the institutional mission of social justice are being abandoned.
Opinion Editorial Board: There is no right to strike against public schools
April 14, 2026 // Government also can’t go out of business. Demands, no matter how exorbitant, can always be paid through higher taxes, which is what’s certain to now happen in Los Angeles. A 2021 paper found that school districts under pressure from collective bargaining raise spending with no improvements in student outcomes. It’s not as though LAUSD is a cheapskate district. The average teacher earns six figures, and the district covers 100 percent of teachers’ health insurance premiums. Teachers’ starting pay for the district is higher than teachers’ median pay for the country as a whole. Average spending per student has risen from $17,798 in 2020-2021 to $29,616 in 2024-2025.
Opinion: California’s Kitchen Nightmare: Union Demands Rise as Enrollment Falls
March 20, 2026 // Even though public school enrollment has fallen sharply since the pandemic, most California districts have continued adding staff. Now teachers unions are pressing districts to commit to more expensive labor contracts, even as the funding they receive remains tied to the number of students they serve. Earlier this month, teachers in two Sacramento-area school districts walked off the job after contract negotiations stalled, bringing the number of teacher strikes in California to six this school year. And more may be on the way. Unions in Los Angeles and Berkeley have already authorized strikes if negotiations fail. These strikes are not isolated incidents. They are part of a coordinated statewide pressure campaign by the California Teachers Association (CTA) called “We Can’t Wait,”
Wave of California teacher strikes ‘is no coincidence’
March 4, 2026 // Thousands of California K-12 teachers have walked off their jobs or voted to strike in the past few months, as part of a strategic, statewide effort by the California Teachers Association to boost salaries and benefits — and get the public’s attention. “All these districts going out on strike — it’s not a coincidence at all,” said David Goldberg, president of the California Teachers Association, the state’s largest teachers union. “Everywhere in the state there are people with unmet needs. The conditions have been ripe for a long time.”
Op-Ed: Mayor Adams seeks to pour more good money after bad in surrender to teaching unions before election
December 2, 2024 // This is madness: The city Department of Education spends about $30,000 per student; there’s no reason to spend even more on schools that are teaching ever-fewer kids. No reason except for the fact that those schools would need to lay off teachers to meet their new budgets, and the UFT is outraged at the thought of losing a dime in dues.
Oakland teachers union opens vote on strike authorization
April 25, 2023 // There is general agreement that teachers are not paid enough. But at the offices of parent advocacy group The Oakland REACH, founder Lakisha Young said while she supports better salaries for educators, it should not be at the expense of the students. "Now we're being asked to sign on to an action that is disruptive to our children, just in support of teachers. And it's like, no, we can support teachers and not support a teacher strike," said Young. "It's what's been put on the table and maybe we need to create a new playbook behind this. Because this has become excessive." Another REACH member, Lupe Canchola, said, like a lot of parents, she will be hard-pressed to find a place for her child if the schools close. She said, in the past, she always supported the teachers' work actions.
Sacramento schools again at risk of financial distress with enrollment declines, new contracts
April 26, 2022 // Sacramento City Unified School District is again facing financial distress just weeks after it approved labor agreements to end its eight-day teacher strike, Sacramento county education officials said last week. The Sacramento Office of Education gave the district's budget a negative certification, stating the contracts and the strike itself would cost the district millions of dollars and could threaten insolvency.